68 THE DISCOBOLI. 



throat. Ventral disk small, little longer than broad, twice as long as 

 the orbit, with a broad membranous border, nearer the chin than the 

 vent, the hinder margin not much nearer to the base of the anal than 

 to the end of the snout. 



Ayres gives the " color light olive-brown, with numerous narrow, wav- 

 ing lines of darker brown running longitudinally, and forming in some 

 instances rings and irregular figures ; abdomen and throat white ; some 

 small brown spots and others of white on the sides, one series faintly in- 

 dicating a lateral line with a slight downward curve." Excepting the lateral 

 line, this answers well for some specimens, such as that figured on Plate V. 

 Fig. 6 ; others, as drawn on Plate IV., may be described as light browjiish, 

 puncticulate and freckled with darker, with obliquely transverse clouded 

 bands of darker on tlie fins, with darker color near the edges of the 

 fins, with scattered small, rounded, dai-k-edged spots of white (open- 

 ings of pores), and without traces of longitudinal stripes ; and on others 

 the brown color forms vermiculations or marmorations. These various 

 markings are found on the specimens from a single locality ; they indicate 

 the extent of individual variation, rather than the existence of more or 

 less firmly established varieties in the species. Our largest specimen is 

 six and three fourths inches in length. 



Hah. — San Francisco ; Monterey. Others are identified by Bean from 

 Tongass, Alaska; St. Paul's, Kodiak ; and Unalashka. 



Anatomy. 



This is one of the more elongate species of the genus. The coloration 

 is adapted to a life among the weeds, and the snout is shaped as if it might 

 be utilized in shovelling or rooting out the prey from its hiding places. 

 In the vertebral column there are a greater number of segments than in 

 any of the preceding ; the column tapers more, consequently there is more 

 difference in size between the posterior vertebroe and the anterior. L. cal- 

 liodon shows little difference between these vertebra3 ; in L. Agassizii the 

 difference is somewhat greater; but in L. pulchellus the column tapers so 

 much, and becomes so slender toward the extremity, that the caudal centra 

 are scarcely half as large as those in the anterior portion of the series. 

 Because of this the plates to which the caudal rays articulate are small ; 

 their hinder borders form an angle, placing the median rays farther back, 

 an approach toward an acuminate condition of the tail. Twenty -one or 



